Creating Accessible Materials
Students with an accommodation for "supplemental materials in accessible format" need to have enhanced classroom materials in order to fully participate in the course. Faculty can make their MS Word docs and PDFs accessible by ensuring that they are in an electronic format that is readable by screen reader software. Syllabi, articles, homework assignments are examples of materials that can be made accessible. Our office can help you convert your materials into accessible formats. Please give us a call (503-370-6737) or email us (accessible-info@willamette.edu) with your questions.
The following resources will guide you through creating accessible documents:
Making Accessible PDFs
The most common software to use for reading PDFs is Adobe Acrobat. You can use Adobe Acrobat to check a PDF's accessibility. The Accessible Education Services office created the following Making PDFs Accessible guide to assist faculty in checking their PDFs. Don't have Adobe Acrobat DC? Contact your WITS USC for installation assistance.
Accessible Education Services
accessible-info@willamette.edu
(503) 370-6737Support for Creating Accessible Materials
Modified September 2025
For general support, faculty can utilize the WITS creating accessible materials webpage. If faculty are downloading readings and materials from library systems there is a high chance that those documents are already accessible.
You can check for accessibility in Adobe under All tools > Prepare for accessibility > Check for accessibility. While documents are ideally 100% accessible, a document that is 80-90% accessible is better than 0%. Achieving partial accessibility is a significant step toward inclusion and provides tangible benefits to a wider audience, even if full compliance isn't immediately possible. It is much harder and more time-consuming to fix issues later so we recommend prioritizing accessibility at the start, when creating new documents.
Scanning/Conversion Guide
You can use this guide for Editing Scanned Readings for Accessibility and Clarity using Adobe Acrobat so that when staff or faculty scan documents on a copier they are able to convert them to an OCR document. Optical Character Recognition is a technology that recognizes text within a digital image.A training video for Creating Accessible PDFs is also available. The video is hosted on the Digital Learning Studio playlist on WU's youtube channel.
These guides are also linked to the DLS libguide > Accessible PDFs tab and the Canvas tutorial libguide > Accessibility Tools tab.
WITS Help Desk Support
For help troubleshooting, the WITS Help Desk can support navigating Adobe to make accessible documents.Adobe Access
PNCA, including public computers, has access to the full Adobe suite. If PNCA faculty would like Adobe installed on their personal computer they can use this link. Adobe Creative suite in Salem is by request. Faculty that are interested should contact WITS.
The Hatfield Library
The Hatfield Library's “Accessing Content” page offers faculty concise instructions on making accessible PDFs for your classes. Library staff created this easy-to-use resource so that faculty can:
- Become familiar with OCR (Optimal Character Recognition)
- Create readable PDFs
- Learn to activate the Read Out Loud feature in Adobe Acrobat to test readability of PDFs
- Use databases to find articles that are already created in OCR format
WebAIM
WebAIM (Web Accessibility in Mind) is a non-profit organization that provides detailed directions, including pictures, on how to make Word documents accessible and convert them into PDFs. Select the version of Word that you are using for a guide to making accessible documents:
Open Educational Resources (OER)
Open Educational Resources (OER) are free teaching, learning, and researching resources that are already accessible. Consider using OER materials in your courses to ensure access and save students money. These resources are available in a multitude of formats, including textbooks, full courses, modules, videos, labs, assignments, and assessments. The Hatfield Library provides a detailed introduction to OER and how to use them. View the OER website.